Thursday, February 18, 2010

Here we go again-- I did it for Christmas and couldn't escape it for Valentine's Day: Chocolate Overload.

Sooooo many chocolates. My head spun. Despite my best efforts at true, surgical cleanliness, there were wayward and unruly drops of chocolate everywhere, on every pair of jeans (and I have a lot of those), on the top ceiling of my freezer, on my chin. A lot. of. chocolate.

This time around, I made four flavors again. Because they were my hands-down favorite from Christmas, I made the saffron-honey dark chocolates again, which were just as much of a hit this time as the last time around. Pictured above are some classic spicy dark chocolates, with a healthy kick of cayenne pepper to spice things up. Then, there were these:

Passionfruit Coconut Dark Chocolates

with Meyer lemon curd filling

Probably due to the incredibly rainy weather and dreary days leading up to Valentine's Day this year, I was in a quite a tropical mood, which translated into these passionfruit-coconut-lemon dark chocolates. The ganache in these are infused with this ultra-concentrated passionfruit syrup that is available at Asian markets (like Ranch 99), spiked with rum, and then studded with unsweetened dried coconut for texture. For a little extra something-something, I also filled the chocolates with a dab of meyer lemon curd, whose tartness played off the passionfruit flavor quite well.

Then, finally, we have the raspberry mocha dark chocolates, which were the runaway favorites for the overly caffeinated academic crowd I served some of these chocolates to:

Instead of raspberry jam, these dark chocolates were packed with a freshly cooked down raspberry reduction that added so much intensity to their flavor. Then, coupled with the strong mocha dark chocolate ganache..... mmmm mm!

Anyways, despite all of my grumbling about the amount of chocolate work I've been doing lately, I have been relishing this chance to experiment with all of these flavor combinations. I've got a few upcoming orders for chocolates, so I'm looking forward to trying some new ideas, too, and, thinking about working with chocolate transfer sheets. Go, chocolate-ty fun!

Read on for recipes for passionfruit-coconut-lemon dark chocolates and raspberry mocha dark chocolates

Passionfruit-coconut dark chocolate ganacheThe recipe for the filling ganache is included below. For directions on molding the candies, please use the recipe here. For lemon curd, see here.

1. Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine cream and butter. Stir and bring to just barely a boil.
3. Remove the cream mixture from heat and pour over the prepared dark chocolate in bowl. Allow to sit for two to three minutes, then stir until the chocolate melts into the cream.
4. Stir in the passionfruit syrup and rum. Then add in as much shredded coconut as desired.
5. Allow the ganache to set in the fridge overnight before use.
6. When filling the chocolate molds, pipe a bit of lemon curd in first and then fill the molds with the passionfruit-coconut ganache.

Raspberry mocha dark chocolate ganacheThe recipe for the filling ganache is included below. For directions on molding the candies, please use the recipe here.

1. In a nonreactive saucepan, saute the raspberries on medium high until they begin to release their juices.
2. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and sifted cornstarch to the raspberries, making sure to whisk to combine the cornstarch.
3. Stirring constantly, bring the contents to a boil and simmer until the raspberries have reduced and are thickened, about 5-7 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Set aside.

Hello!!! Curious about how to make some of these chocolates non-alcoholic. I think you could just leave out the liqueurs entirely, could you not? That would still leave a ganache-type consistency.....?

Hello!!! Curious about how to make some of these chocolates non-alcoholic. I think you could just leave out the liqueurs entirely, could you not? That would still leave a ganache-type consistency.....?